At the convergence of the fields of social work, urban planning, and policymaking, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs identifies and develops emerging areas of research and teaching, cultivating leaders and change agents who advance solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

Founded in 1994, UCLA Luskin incorporates the best practices in scholarship, research, and teaching in the fields of social work, urban and regional planning, and policymaking. The unique intersection of these disciplines within one school allows for academic cross-collaboration and a graduate education that values diverse perspectives at the macro- and micro- organizational levels. Graduates of the master’s and doctoral programs are well prepared to take leadership roles and effect change as practitioners, researchers, and policymakers in the public, private, and non-governmental sectors.

Faculty of the Luskin School of Public Affairs are actively engaged in research that address pressing national and regional issues including immigration, drug policy, prison reform, health care financing, transportation and the environment, national security, economic development, and an aging U.S. and world population. The School is named after Meyer and Renee Luskin—UCLA alumni, Angelenos, and philanthropists—who generously gave a $100 million gift to UCLA, half of which funded endowments in the School of Public Affairs. On March 18, 2011, the School was officially named the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Quick Facts

Master’s degrees in Public Policy, Social Welfare, Urban and Regional Planning.

Doctoral programs in Social Welfare and Urban Planning.

Undergraduate minors in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning.

Student body: 567 students

129 Public Policy students

209 Social Welfare students (50 Ph.D.)

143 Urban Planning students (36 Ph.D.)

Numbers accurate as of Fall 2015

Alumni: 7,454

741 Master of Public Policy

4,184 Master of Social Welfare

2,548 Master’s degrees from Urban Planning

235 Master of Public Administration

251 Doctoral degrees

Numbers accurate as of Fall 2016

Dean Gary M. Segura

Professor of Public Policy

Before beginning his appointment as Dean at UCLA Luskin in January 2017, professor Segura served as the Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor of Public Policy, professor of political science, and professor and former chair of Chicana/o-Latina/o studies at Stanford University. A member of the Stanford faculty since 2008, he was a faculty affiliate of African and African American studies; American studies; feminist, gender and sexuality studies; Latin American studies; and urban studies. In addition, he was the director of the Center for American Democracy and the director of the Institute on the Politics of Inequality, Race and Ethnicity at Stanford. In 2010, Professor Segura was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prior to joining Stanford, he was a member of the faculty at the University of Washington (2005-08), the University of Iowa (2001-05), Claremont Graduate University (1996-2001) and the University of California, Davis (1991-96).

Professor Segura received a B.A. magna cum laude in political science from Loyola University of the South, and an A.M. and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on issues of political representation and social cleavages, the domestic politics of wartime public opinion and the politics of America’s growing Latino minority. Professor Segura has published more than 55 articles and chapters, and he is a co-editor of “Diversity in Democracy: Minority Representation in the United States” and a co-author of four books — “Latino America: How America’s Most Dynamic Population is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation;” “Latinos in the New Millennium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior, and Policy Preferences;” “The Future is Ours: Minority Politics, Political Behavior, and the Multiracial Era of American Politics;” and “Latino Lives in America: Making It Home.”

Active in professional service, he has served on numerous committees and editorial boards, and he is a past president of the Western Political Science Association, Midwest Political Science Association and Latino Caucus in Political Science. From 2009 to 2015, he was the co-principal investigator of the American National Election Studies. Moreover, he has briefed members of Congress and senior administration officials on issues related to Latinos, served as an expert witness in three marriage equality cases heard by the Supreme Court, and has filed amicus curiae briefs on subjects as diverse as voting rights, marriage equality and affirmative action.

Strategic Plan

The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs has used the opportunity presented by the generous $50-million naming gift from Meyer and Renee Luskin to rethink and plan how to meet the challenges of our time. This Strategic Planning effort begins to redefine the future of the School, the future of the field of public affairs, and the future for how public universities respond to society’s greatest problems.

This comprehensive planning project has focused on identifying the world’s most pressing problems, developing new opportunities for UCLA Luskin to address them, and creating the knowledge base, tools and initiatives that are required for the School to play a leadership role for the next 20 years.

Visit Us

The Luskin School of Public Affairs building is located in the northeast section of the UCLA campus adjacent to the Murphy Sculpture Garden. Visitors to the School should plan on entering campus through the Hilgard entrance and park in Structure 3.